The City of Cape Girardeau did not offer any direct incentives to the company formerly known as NARS to open a facility in the city.
Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer said the city offered an agreement to a developer called Missouri Builders to make some public improvements to the Plaza area before NARS came to Cape Girardeau. These improvements were funded by an incremental sales tax.
Meyer said Plaza property owners also imposed a one-cent sales tax on themselves by forming a Community Improvement District.
“And then they use that tax to make some of the private improvements- the building renovations which we see now there and have been able to enjoy,” Meyer said, “And that’s again throughout the entire place, not just the NARS.”
NARS changed its name to Integrity Solutions Services earlier this year. Last week, they announced they would lay off all 420 workers and shut down their Cape Girardeau facility.
The call center opened in Cape Girardeau in 2007.
